Sony shows off TransferJet wireless technology

Sony has used CES this week to unveil a new wireless transfer system it has been working on for its portable gadgets.

The new technology is called TransferJet and has been developed to allow data to be transferred between two devices without the need for wires–in the same way as wireless USB allows. The transfer rate of TranferJet is said to be 375 Mbps for sustained transfers and 500 Mbps under optimal conditions.

The technology is set to be included in a range of Sony gadgets such as video cameras and mobile phones. There was also the suggestion of including it in kiosks so photographs could be transferred for printing or songs downloaded without needing to remove a memory card or plug in a wire.

With TransferJet, Sony seems to have overcome the problem of people stealing the data being streamed wirelessly by severely limiting the range. In order for TransferJet to work, the two devices communicating must be 1.75 inches or closer together.

I’m a little confused about this new wireless transfer solution. It seems Sony is just creating another solution that needs to be supported when wireless USB can do the same thing. Surely, this just makes it more of a pain for hardware manufacturers if they want to make their gadgets universally accessible?

The range of the device also severely limits how wires-free these devices are. If you want to transfer a picture between two TranferJet-enabled phones, then it works fine; you just put the phones back-to-back and wait. But most people want to transfer their data to a home PC, so you are going to have to buy a TransferJet base unit to sit your device on. The base unit would consist of a piece of plastic to sit the device on and a wire connecting the unit to the PC; does this not defeat the purpose of TransferJet to remove wires from the equation?

I will have to wait and see if TransferJet brings anything else new to the world of gadgets; otherwise it will just be seen as another solution to a problem that may have already been solved by a more versatile device.